Important Question: Does the Temple have elevators?

So from the description of the Temple in OAR, we know the inhabited portions of the Temple is roughly five or six stories tall. The wings contain offices and the residential apartments of VIPs like the Vicars.

So the question is: Does the Temple have elevators?

In ancient Rome, the most affluent people in an apartment building lived on the ground floor or close to it while the poorer ones had to live upstairs because climbing so many floors was a chore. If the Temple has no elevators, escalators, or other means of powered lift, then apartment desirability should follow the same logic.

But in the Temple, Clyntahn - arguably the highest status member of the Temple outside the Grand Vicar - has a corner apartment that looks out upon the city of Zion, implying it's NOT a ground floor apartment. In fact, implying a top floor or close to top floor location. And of course being the fat ass he is, Clyntahn himself wouldn't want to climb any more stairs that he has to.

And given that the Temple already has powered lights, powered doors, and climate control, I can't see any reason why it wouldn't have elevators.

Especially since said elevators would likely also have basement access, even if the people riding them don't. No need for secret passages or hidden doors here!

Edit: AFAIK, there has been no description of anyone using an elevator inside the Temple. But then again, there's been no mention of anyone using stairs, ladders, ramps, or any other means of going from floor to floor inside the Temple either! But the Temple has been unambiguously been described as having multiple floor levels!

evilauthor wrote:So from the description of the Temple in OAR, we know the inhabited portions of the Temple is roughly five or six stories tall. The wings contain offices and the residential apartments of VIPs like the Vicars.

So the question is: Does the Temple have elevators?

In ancient Rome, the most affluent people in an apartment building lived on the ground floor or close to it while the poorer ones had to live upstairs because climbing so many floors was a chore. If the Temple has no elevators, escalators, or other means of powered lift, then apartment desirability should follow the same logic.

But in the Temple, Clyntahn - arguably the highest status member of the Temple outside the Grand Vicar - has a corner apartment that looks out upon the city of Zion, implying it's NOT a ground floor apartment. In fact, implying a top floor or close to top floor location. And of course being the fat ass he is, Clyntahn himself wouldn't want to climb any more stairs that he has to.

And given that the Temple already has powered lights, powered doors, and climate control, I can't see any reason why it wouldn't have elevators.

Especially since said elevators would likely also have basement access, even if the people riding them don't. No need for secret passages or hidden doors here!

Edit: AFAIK, there has been no description of anyone using an elevator inside the Temple. But then again, there's been no mention of anyone using stairs, ladders, ramps, or any other means of going from floor to floor inside the Temple either! But the Temple has been unambiguously been described as having multiple floor levels!

Yup - I've wondered about that too.

evilauthor wrote:And given that the Temple already has powered lights, powered doors, and climate control, I can't see any reason why it wouldn't have elevators.

Especially since said elevators would likely also have basement access, even if the people riding them don't. No need for secret passages or hidden doors here!

Edit: AFAIK, there has been no description of anyone using an elevator inside the Temple. But then again, there's been no mention of anyone using stairs, ladders, ramps, or any other means of going from floor to floor inside the Temple either! But the Temple has been unambiguously been described as having multiple floor levels!

I think we can reasonably infer elevators or equivalents. Simple elevators may not be too mysterious, either - the dumbwaiter is solidly within Safehold's tech base, so the thing preventing the use of elevators for humans is just the practicality of powering them and operating them safely. I'm sure the Emperor of Harchong could have a slave-powered elevator, for example, and maybe does. In the Temple, it may just be miraculous grav lifts if the designers indulged in TF tech for that to wow the rubes, or "merely" huge dumbwaiters with no visible power source or noise, to give them something a bit more subtly impressive and possibly less terrifying. (It may not wow pilgrims so much to have the Vicarate routinely screaming and shuddering as they move up and down the Temple interior....)

I think elevators would be pushing it too far. As it would require a user interface. An interface beyond the simple single buttons of a room light or door.

So I speculate that there are some sort of powered stairs. Nothing so obvious as the moving mechanical escalators of Old Earth. Probably anti grav assisted stairs. So people going up them don't feel any particular strain.

sunhawk wrote:I think elevators would be pushing it too far. As it would require a user interface. An interface beyond the simple single buttons of a room light or door.

So I speculate that there are some sort of powered stairs. Nothing so obvious as the moving mechanical escalators of Old Earth. Probably anti grav assisted stairs. So people going up them don't feel any particular strain.

This stuff is done with TF tech in the Temple...
Some application of anti-grav, I would think...

Don

And what's wrong with buttons (or a touch screen showing buttons, same diff) as a UI? You press a button to call the elevator and you press a button in the elevator to tell it what floor to take you to. It'd be no more complicated than the lights and powered doors (and presumably the bathrooms) everyone already uses in the Temple.

evilauthor wrote:And what's wrong with buttons (or a touch screen showing buttons, same diff) as a UI? You press a button to call the elevator and you press a button in the elevator to tell it what floor to take you to. It'd be no more complicated than the lights and powered doors (and presumably the bathrooms) everyone already uses in the Temple.

Exactly. In fact, doesn't the latest book have the grand boar pressing on a corner of his desk to let Ryano in?

He pressed the "God light", AAMOF.

Rajani Isa wrote:

evilauthor wrote:And what's wrong with buttons (or a touch screen showing buttons, same diff) as a UI? You press a button to call the elevator and you press a button in the elevator to tell it what floor to take you to. It'd be no more complicated than the lights and powered doors (and presumably the bathrooms) everyone already uses in the Temple.

Exactly. In fact, doesn't the latest book have the grand boar pressing on a corner of his desk to let Ryano in?

sunhawk wrote:I think elevators would be pushing it too far. As it would require a user interface. An interface beyond the simple single buttons of a room light or door.

So I speculate that there are some sort of powered stairs. Nothing so obvious as the moving mechanical escalators of Old Earth. Probably anti grav assisted stairs. So people going up them don't feel any particular strain.

They've already shown that there's plenty of tech in use in the Temple that requires user interaction. Aside from the desk mentioned above, when the Temple Guard goes to arrest the Wylsynns, they find the door locked and have to use one of the Inquisition's "wands" to override the lock. It's also mentioned that there's a persistent rumor that the Inquisition has the ability to mystically observe anything throughout the Temple. Whether that's true or not, it's specific enough (and feasible enough for the reader) to be believable.

All of which suggests that the Temple dwellers interact with computers all the time. They don't have a clue about what a computer *is*, but that's just a mark of good UI design in this context.

evilauthor wrote:So from the description of the Temple in OAR, we know the inhabited portions of the Temple is roughly five or six stories tall. The wings contain offices and the residential apartments of VIPs like the Vicars.

So the question is: Does the Temple have elevators?

In ancient Rome, the most affluent people in an apartment building lived on the ground floor or close to it while the poorer ones had to live upstairs because climbing so many floors was a chore. If the Temple has no elevators, escalators, or other means of powered lift, then apartment desirability should follow the same logic.

But in the Temple, Clyntahn - arguably the highest status member of the Temple outside the Grand Vicar - has a corner apartment that looks out upon the city of Zion, implying it's NOT a ground floor apartment. In fact, implying a top floor or close to top floor location. And of course being the fat ass he is, Clyntahn himself wouldn't want to climb any more stairs that he has to.

I would say that it does not have elevators. Elevators require a lot of maintenance and the kind of mechanical knowledge that safehold residence just don't seem to have. AND!!... you can have a "view" from the lowest floor of a building if the building is built on a high hill or mountain.